That in itself is not new (ie Nexplore and others before it), but the use of Silverlight has given this a competitive advantage.
How to set up a Bing listing:
By now, you’re probably well aware that Yahoo! and Microsoft have entered into a search deal which will see Bing become the default search engine on Yahoo.com. While it might take over a year for the switch to actually take place, there are a number of things you can do now to prepare your business for the changeover. One of these would be to setup a Bing local listing.
How to Setup a Bing Listing
If you’re familiar with how Google local listings work, creating an identical listing in Bing should take no time at all. Below are the steps to complete the process:
- Visit the Bing local listing centre here: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
- Enter your business name, phone number and address. Bing will then check if your business is already registered and prompt you to edit or create your business profile.
- You’re then presented with all the usual business fields to complete, so remember to provide as much information as possible (text, links, images etc.) as this should help to get your business ranking higher.
- Take advantage of Bing’s supplemental websites area to add extra relevant links to your listing. For example, a restaurant can add additional links to their menus, booking form, or even reviews on a site like tripadvisor.
- Verify your listing. Similar to Google, Bing gives you the choice to do this via phone or snail mail.
- You’re done!
Aside from being ready for the merger and increasing your online presence, getting in early with a Bing local listing might also help to give your listing more credibility and improve your ranking. We know search algorithms look at the age of website’s in their ranking formula, so if this also holds true for local listings it’s another reason to register your business now.
Update: As some of our readers have pointed out, Bing local listings are only available for US based businesses at this stage.
